Living in the north of Brazil, facing an estuary of the Amazon river, I blog about Brazil and life in the delta of the Amazon. Serious issues with a wink to the sometimes light-hearted Brazilian society, including its curiosities and a touch of its beauties.

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Lula’s Launderette

(In this post I will use a lot of names anybody outside the Brazilian inner world doesn’t know. But that’s not important; it is the context of the story that tells the ruin Brazil is in. The names are just illustration, however real)

Ex-Senator Antonio Carlos Magalhães, Godfather of the oligarchic family who rules Bahia inaugurated Lula’s Launderette.In 2003, accused of tapping phones of political opponents in the federal state of Bahia, he ran the risk to be tried for breaking decorum by the Senate Ethics Commission. However: he had supported Lula’s presidential election the previous year and Lula returned the favour by securing Magalhães’ mandate. From that moment on, Lula’s Launderette was an absolute success.

Between Antonio Carlos Magalhães and José Sarney, another Godfather of an oligarchic family, this time in the federal state of Maranhâo, member of one of the most corrupt political parties in the country the PMDB, and the latest customer of Lula’s Launderette, Lula handled a lot of dirty laundry.

Lula doesn’t transform dirty clothes in immaculate clothes. Up till now, he does not work miracles. Tomorrow, you never know. But Lula always tries to prevent that the grubby clothes in play end up discarded as useless garbage. Most times he succeeds.

Lula does not discriminate between loyal allies, not reliable allies, moderate opponents and historic adversaries. If Lula sees an advantage in rinsing their dirty laundry until they recoup some of the lost purity or get rid of the compromising spots, he will carry out the laundering with pleasure.

About the controversial Roberto Jefferson, then President of the PTB (the Brazilian Labour Party), Lula said he was a man who he would trust with a blank cheque. The man worthy of such confidence let erupt a scandal that almost toppled Lula’s government.
Amid the scandal, informed about the possibility that publicity agent Marcos Valério planned to tell everything he knew, Lula, influenced by a few to many doses of alcohol, started to talk about resignation.
But it was God himself who came to his rescue. Lula only quieted down when they assured him that Valério was under control. And is that till today.

It doesn’t matter how thoroughly you look around, you will not find any hard words from Lula about Jefferson. Ahh, compliments you possibly will find.You also find nothing against Jose Dirceu, Lula’s former first minister and qualified by the Attorney General’s Office as the head of a “sophisticated criminal organization” that sought to conquer a part of the state apparatus.
Lula choose Dirceu to pay for yet another corruption scandal. To compensate him, Lula white-washes the biography of his friend, every time he thinks it to be necessary.

He was almost offering a public apology to Antonio Palocci who Lula had to dismiss as Minister of Finance, forced by the scandal about the bank secrecy breach of Francenildo Pereira. Palocci swore before a CPI that he never attended a suspicious house in Brasilia.
Francenildo Pereira vowed to have seen him there a dozen times. Lula called Palocci “my brother” and dreams of the day he can re-install him in the government.

And “our Delúbio”, huh? And Romero Jucá, who offered non-existent farms as collateral for a loan, taken from an official bank? Lula came out in defence of both.
With a voice hoarse from repeating: “Nobody is guilty until convicted by the courts.”

According to the letter of the law this is correct. But what the populace expects from a president is not the same as what it expects from a judge. Presidents have to satisfy society. A judge, only his conscience. A bad example set by a judge, can in no way be compared to a bad example exhibited by the person most closely watched and admired by the Brazilians.

Was Lula’s commitment to maintain Renan Calheiros (member of the already mentioned corrupt PMDB) in the chair of the Senate, a good example? He almost succeeded.
When he called Sarney an “extra-ordinary” person and required from his political party the PT to support him in office, did Lula give a good example?

Lula’s Launderette provides invaluable services to its founder and sole owner, and also to those who need it. At this moment the launderette in working in high gear. There are so many corruption scandals popping up around Lula, that Lula might not be able to find time to white-wash his own laundry,

This will be Lula’s legacy. A continuous, never ending story of laundering corruption scandals. Even his labelled successor and present first minister Dilma Rousseff, is involved in a new corruption scandal, as she fired the head of the Federal Tax Office, Lina Vieira, who refused to abort an investigation of tax fraud by the son of Sarney. Indeed the same as we are talking being involved in the Senate corruption scandals.
Lina Vieira is not the first and only honest public servant in a high place, who is taken out by the Lula government. There is a long list, but honesty doesn’t stand a chance, it will be eliminated, all of it, as the country is ruled by a relatively small group of crooks.

How many corruption scandals will pop up before the presidential elections in November next year? Will it alert the Brazilian voter? Or will they be as sheepish as with every election and elect the corrupt oligarchic families and their vassals back in power.
You see, Brazil is the country of the future, and that ……. will never ever change. The absolute degradation of ethics and morality takes care of that.

*For this post I (mis)used the essentials of a blog-post written by Ricardo Noblat.